I move:
That the Social Welfare (Modification of Contribution Conditions for Benefit) Regulations, 1980, proposed to be made by the Minister for Social Welfare and laid in draft, sanctioned by the Minister for Finance, before Dáil Éireann on the 13th day of November, 1980, under subsection (4) of section 14 of the Social Welfare Act, 1952, be approved.
The necessity for these regulations arises from the introduction as from 6 April 1979 of the new system of pay-related social insurance contributions. The new system involves, inter alia, changes in the contribution and benefit years for social insurance purposes. Hitherto the men's benefit year commenced on the first Monday in June each year and the women's benefit year on the first Monday in December. The benefit year for both men and women will in future be the year commencing on the first Monday in the calendar year. The first common benefit year for both men and women will therefore commence on 5 January 1981 and the governing contribution year will be the income tax year 1979-80, that is, the year commencing on 6 April 1979.
The existing contribution conditions for disability benefit require claimants to have not less than 48 contributions paid or credited in the contribution year preceding the benefit year in which the claim is made, in order to qualify for payment at the full rates. Reduced rates of benefit are payable if the claimant has less than 48 contributions but at least 26 contributions paid or credited in the governing contribution year. Claimants who have less than 26 such contributions in the governing contribution year are not entitled to payment in the new benefit year.
The application of this contribution condition necessitates examination of all claims to disability benefit before the beginning of a new benefit year to ensure that the claimants continue to have title to benefit. Hitherto, in accordance with this requirement, all men's claims have been examined in April and May before the beginning of the men's benefit year in June and women's claims in October and November before the beginning of the women's benefit year in December. The change to a common benefit year for both men and women would necessitate examination of all disability benefit claims in the months immediately preceding January each year. Because of the large volume of work involved in this exercise it would be extremely difficult for my Department to cope with the examination of claims without the risk of delay in the payment of benefit in many cases.
The regulations now before the House are designed to deal with this problem by modifying the contribution conditions for disability benefit. In effect they provide that when a person claims disability benefit the benefit year for that claim will be the year from the date of commencement of the claim. Consequently, the rate of disability benefit applicable at the start of the claim will continue to be the rate payable for one year unless the claimant ceases to claim or the right to benefit is exhausted. The rate of benefit will not be affected, as it may be at present, when a new benefit year supervenes in the first twelve months of incapacity. At the end of this period the claim will be examined on the basis of the person's contributions in the appropriate governing contribution year. Thus the re-examination of claims will be spread over the calendar year and will not have to be undertaken in the pre-Christmas period each year as would otherwise have been the case but for these regulations.
I would like to mention also that these regulations will necessitate a Committee Stage amendment in the Social Welfare Consolidation Bill which was introduced on 16 October. The fact that an amendment to the Bill is arising at this early stage of its existence indicates the need for speedy enactment of that Bill; otherwise, the task of the Joint Standing Committee on Consolidation Bills would be made more difficult and onerous.
Regulations modifying the contribution conditions for unemployment benefit were approved in 1956. The proposed modification for disability benefit purposes is on similar lines and is intended to avoid possible delay in the payment of benefit at the commencement of each year. In the circumstances I now ask the House to approve of the Social Welfare (Modification of Contribution Conditions for Benefit) Regulations, 1980, in draft.
